Summer Lecture Series to explore topics ranging from green energy to women’s movements

The Yale Summer Lecture Series, hosted by Yale Summer Session, will kick off on Wednesday, June 13 with a lecture by Associate Dean Sandy Chang titled “A Revolution in Cancer Treatment.” All lectures are free and the public is welcome.

The Summer Lecture Series brings together outstanding faculty, distinguished guests, and graduate students to share their expertise on some of the most salient issues of today. Because Yale welcomes hundreds of students and scholars from around the world each summer, the Summer Lecture Series offers a space for the diverse summer community to join together and engage on a wide range of topics.

All lectures will take place in Sudler Hall (Rm. 201 of William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St.), 5-6 p.m. The exception is the Head of Summer Colleges Tea on July 16, which will take place 4:30-6 p.m. in Sudler Hall.

The 2018 Summer Lecture Series is as follows:

June 13: ‘A Revolution in Cancer Treatment’

There’s been a revolution in how we treat certain lethal cancers. Instead of using toxic chemicals to kill cancer cells (which also incur terrible side effects), new drugs are harnessing the immune system to selectively target only the cancer cells. In this lecture Chang will use patient cases to illustrate this advance, and explain the molecular mechanisms behind this revolution.

June 20: ‘The Inherent Inequities of Choice’

Riché Barnes, dean, Pierson College

This lecture will explore how inequality inherently exists in what we refer to as our freedom to choose. It will explore policies that influence work and family choice, school choice, and health care choice as modes that only affect certain members of our population. And, while these decisions are portrayed in social movements and social policy as beneficial to the least of these, they each ultimately limit equitable access.

July 5: ‘A Women’s Revolution in the Middle East: The Kurdish Movement in Syria’

Huseyin Rasit, Ph.D. candidate in sociology

The Kurdish Revolution in Syria has drawn much attention from around the world in recent years. Especially intriguing has been the central position of women from women's political councils to a women-only army fighting the ISIS. This lecture will examine the political and social roots of the Kurdish movement, how it has been able to implement such a political project within the context of the Middle East, and what its prospects are with the Syrian civil war increasingly becoming an arena for international power games.

July 11: ‘New Energy Technologies for a Green Planet’

The move to renewable energy, and associated technology developments, are many — some are promising and some are affordable; some are easy and some very challenging. This lecture will explore the most interesting and explainable ones — from approaches being implemented at Yale to new technologies worldwide. It will also consider the new policies and buildings of the Yale campus, so students can view and explore the campus in a new light.

July 16 (4:30-6 pm): ‘Women in Media: Reporting in the #MeToo Movement’

Yale Summer Session and the Film and Media Studies Program cosponsor this 2018 Head of Summer Colleges Tea featuring Kasie Hunt, Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, and Elise Jordan, Time Magazine and NBC contributor. Moderated by Eileen O’Connor, vice president for communications at Yale, Hunt and Jordan will discuss their career paths, covering politics under the Trump administration, and their experiences as women in news rooms, particularly in the #MeToo movement.

July 24: ‘What Really Exists?’

Sam Berstler, Ph.D. candidate in philosophy

When we ask what really exists, we are asking about what exists most fundamentally — what the most fundamental, ultimate, or “really real” entities are. Is there one large fundamental entity (the universe) or many different fundamental entities? What does fundamentality explain? Can quantum mechanics help us answer this question? This is an introductory lecture to one core area in metaphysics, or the study of being.

July 30: ‘Sexuality and Culture’

Human sexuality is central to our existence and our experience but ofen talked about and studied in very circumscribed ways. This presentation will explore a series of historical vignettes to illuminate the cultural plasticity of human sexual behavior. Trumpler will examine if female sexual freedom among forager-hunter groups was related to their food contributions will look at at The Kama Sutra for an early discussion of erotic practices. The impact of Freud, the AIDS epidemic, and Michel Foucault's ideas about power and govermentality will also be discussed.